And this was just what Rose and Russ were also wondering. Russ ran back to Rose.
"What made them go off in a boat like that?" asked Russ.
"I don't know," Rose answered. "I thought they were all right, and then, when I looked again, I saw them there. And they want to come back, but they can't!"
"Oh, maybe the men in the motor boat are taking them away!" Russ exclaimed, for there were two men in the boat that was towing the smaller craft. But these men did not seem to be paying any attention to the two children in the rowboat behind them. The two men were up in the front of their craft, and appeared to be working at the steering wheel.
"Come back! Come back!" cried Russ, holding his hand to his mouth to make a sort of funnel, or megaphone, as he had often seen the fishermen do, and also the cowboys on Uncle Fred's ranch.
Across the water came faintly to the ears of Rose and Russ the sobs and cries of Laddie and Vi in the rowboat.
"Those men are taking 'em away!" cried Rose. "What shall we do?"
Just then Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker came down from the bungalow, up on the hill, to the beach where the children had gone to play. At once the two men saw that something was the matter. Then they noticed the two little Bunkers out in the boat.
"Who let them go?" cried Daddy Bunker.
"Nobody let them go," said Russ. "Those men are taking them away!"